Storybrooke Casino
by CJ Moliere
Summary: After the events of Neverland, Storybrooke seemed to be settling down until the residents got caught up in the Facebook slot machine craze. Now friends and enemies must unite to defeat the Queen of the Reels, The Evil Queen herself. Meanwhile, Rumplestiltskin and Belle are taking chances both online and in life when they decide to try to have a baby.
1. Chapter 1

Belle rolled over in bed and noticed that the space her husband was supposed to be occupying was vacant. Concerned that something was wrong, she crawled out of bed, put on her robe and slippers and went downstairs in search of him. The first place she decided to check was the basement, concerned he was working on some kind of magical experiment. It had been six months since he'd returned from Neverland and defeated his father in a battle that left the former Dark One shaken yet he refused to talk to anyone else but her about it. Also he was still trying to repair his relationship with his son and get to know his grandson better. He feared the others still thought him capable of ending the boy's life to save his own but the undoing he'd feared so for centuries was only the undoing of the Dark One. The dagger that once bore his name was now just another weapon he kept handy for protection along with the gun. He was still capable of wielding magic however, there were more limits on what he could do.

She kneeled down and looked in the basement window to find her husband not performing a magical experiment but sitting in front of the laptop he bought a few weeks ago and was teaching her how to use. She scowled.

_No...he wouldn't be looking at that stuff! _she thought. She'd overheard Ruby and Ashley talking one day in the diner about how some of the men in Storybrooke had a nasty habit of looking at dirty pictures on the computer. Unlike the rest of the women, she was not going to be silent about it. She opened the basement door.

"Rumplestiltskin, what are you doing?" she demanded. "It's three in the morning!"

"Oh, come on! How the hell did she get to level 85 already!?" he growled.

"Rumple!" Belle shouted.

"What...oh...sweetheart, what are you doing up?" he asked softly as he looked up from the screen.

"I might ask you the same question. Are you down here looking at that..._porn_?"

"Porn? Of course not. I'm playing the slots."

"The slots?"

He motioned for her to sit beside him. She could see some pictures on the screen along with some words. "Do you see that button that says spin?"

"Ummm...yes."

"Move the pointer over to it and click." he instructed. Belle clicked on the button and the pictures started moving. When they stopped colored lines appeared through them along with noise and another picture popped up that seemed to be counting.

"Oh! Did I mess something up Rumple?" she asked worriedly.

To her surprise, her husband cupped her face in his hands and kissed her passionately. "Damn, I should've let you do this along time ago! A hundred thousand coins and a level up! I'll beat that Evil Queen yet!" he crowed. He took the mouse and clicked the screen again, typing something.

"I won money?"

"Not real money my sweetheart, but yes you did," was her husband's gleeful reply. "I've been trying to get enough coins to be at a higher level than Regina for a damned week but she's been getting further ahead."

"You play this with Regina?"

"Her and half of Storybrooke. The rest of us share free coins and spins but that greedy bitch keeps all hers to herself. No matter."

His cellphone rang. He glanced down at the display and burst into laughter as he pressed the answer button and put it on speaker.

"A hundred grand and you can only share two thousand coins, Papa? That sucks!" Neal complained. "You better be sending me some free spins!"

"Actually Belle was the one who did it." Rumple confessed.

"_Belle?_ Papa, you said she only gets on Facebook to talk to everybody not play the slots."

"This looks fun," Belle said as she clicked on the spin button again. "Oooh, look Rumple. I won again!" she cried excitedly.

"How much did she get?" Neal asked.

"Just two hundred." Rumple replied with a frown. "You can go to different slots. See," he said as he moved the mouse on the screen to show her the different video slot machines the game had to offer. "And you can bet more or less. It's up to you. Tell you what. Why don't we sign me out and go under your account so you can start playing?" he suggested.

"Papa, you're gonna have to get another laptop." Neal cautioned. "You get her playing the slots and she won't get off long enough for you to play."

"I'll buy her one in the morning. Now add her to your list Bae and tell the others so they can start sending her spins."

"Okay. Gotcha. Night, Papa."

After Neal hung up Belle reached across the table and took her husband's hand in hers. "Is this game helping you and Baelfire bond more?" she inquired softly.

"Yes, but we still have a long way to go. I don't care how long it takes or what it takes. I'm not going to let him go again...not like _he _did to me." Rumple added bitterly. "And when I think about what he did to Henry..."

"It's over now, darling. You have your son and your grandson back, you have me and...maybe someday Bae will have a brother or sister but that's not going to happen if you insist on sneaking out of bed in the middle of the night to play the slot machines," she added with a grin.

"You were having as much fun playing as I did," he reminded her.

"Yes, and I'll play them some more after you buy me that laptop but I still want to work on getting that brother or sister for Baelfire."

"Oh, I sense a deal coming," he murmured, rubbing his hands together in anticpation of what she was proposing. Although the deals he struck now were few and far between, he'd learned over the last twenty-nine years that the most beneficial ones always were with the blue eyed beauty sitting beside him.

"We can play the slots all we want during the day but we work on having a baby at night?" she proposed.

"And the deal is struck," he declared and they sealed their new agreement with a kiss.

"Since it's still nighttime..."

She didn't need to say anything more.

Over in her mansion on Mifflin Street Regina Mills, the former Evil Queen glanced at her Facebook page, smirking with satisfaction as she saw the latest events in her lifelong rivalry with a certain imp. The verbal sparring was still there and while she was reading through the posts of the day from the game _Caesar's Casino_, she clicked to reply to one of them.

_Remember how you said I was never going to beat you? Well it looks like I AM Rumple. Three million coins and up to level 85! Where are you...oh, that's right. You're only on level 73. You can keep trying, dearie but you're never gonna beat ME! _she typed, chuckling while she threw his own words right back at him then opened a new window in her browser. As soon as she clicked on one of the slots she could see that a tournament was being held. She increased her bet amount and started spinning, anticpating leaving her competitors in the dust. Players from around the world were starting to realize that they were no match for the Evil Queen. The jackpot would be hers.

Over in their loft, Mary Margaret and David were sitting at the kitchen table with their laptops open searching their Facebook pages.

"Snow! Rumple's sharing two thousand coins to the first five clickers! Hurry up and click it before Regina gets it!"

"She's on so we can kiss those two thousand coins goodbye," Mary Margaret complained. "We share all our wins and free spins but she never does and she STILL has more money than we do. I bet she cheats and buys coins too."

"We can get Emma to hack her checking account to find out," David suggested.

"Is this Storybrooke's sheriff's deputy suggesting we break the law?" she giggled.

"Yeah because I want to know how the hell she's beating the whole town. Hell, even _Rumple _is nowhere close to getting to the level she's at and he's been getting a lot of big wins."

While they were switching back and forth between browser screens, a new message appeared on their Facebook pages from Regina announcing her latest victory. David read the message, smiling wickedly as an idea formed in his mind.


	2. Chapter 2

Later that day while she was at the shopping center Regina spotted her nemesis in the electronics department talking with the clerk as they stood in front of a display of laptop computers. She sauntered over to them.

"You think getting a new computer will make you level up faster in Caesar's, Rumple?" she taunted. "I'm now on level 89...looks like you've got a looong way to go."

"Do you mind? We're in the middle of a conversation here!" he barked. "Now then," He turned back to the clerk. "My wife doesn't need anything fancy, just something she can use to get on the internet, play games and talk to our family members."

"Sure Mr. Gold. How about this one?" the clerk suggested, gesturing to one of the computers. "It's half the price of that one but it has lower memory and a smaller hard drive. Also it's a bit lighter."

"Rumple, you should see this...oh, hello Regina," Belle greeted her former captor civilly when she approached them pushing a shopping cart filled with merchandise.

"It looks like Rumple's buying you a laptop. What for?"

"So I can play the slot machines because I seem to be good at it. I just started playing last night and I'm already up to level four," the beauty replied while her husband was unable to conceal his smirk at Regina's expression of disbelief.

"You bought her coins to get her ahead, didn't you?" the evil queen accused him.

"Hardly dearie. My wife is just very lucky. If anyone's buying coins to level up faster, it's you. Always have to take shortcuts, don't you?"

"Look who's talking," she retorted. "The only way you're gonna get past me Gold is by breaking out your wallet and buying coins or if you manage to win a tournament...which you won't if I'm playing in the same one."

"I don't play the machines you do."

"Nor can you because you can't unlock them yet. By the time my free spins for today are done, I should go up another level," she bragged.

Rumple scowled. "And who sends you free spins? You certainly don't share any with anyone here."

"You forgot my son and your grandson. Did you really think he wouldn't share with me?"

"I didn't even know he played."

"I taught him a month ago," Regina said proudly.

"I see," Rumple muttered.

"Plus I've made a few friends."

"I can only imagine what lies you've been feeding them."

The Evil Queen laughed. "Jealous, Rumple?"

"Of you? Of course not. What need would I have of people outside this town?"

"For starters...more free coins and spins," she taunted. "See you online, Rumple." she added as she walked away.

"She has a point, Mr. Gold," the clerk said. "I don't play the slots on Facebook but my mom does and she said the more friends you have, the more chances you have to get free coins and spins."

"Well, our experiences with people outside this town haven't been all that good. Belle, sweetheart, do you want this laptop?" Rumple inquired of his wife.

"That's fine Rumple."

After he paid for the laptop and placed it in the cart, he glanced through the other items his wife picked up while she was browsing through the store. He picked up a bag of pomegranates.

"What are these for?"

"The pomegranate is the symbol for fertility in many cultures," she explained. "And there was a lady giving out free samples of a juice made from them so I picked up some."

"And that...?" he pointed down to a scrap of blue satin and lace material tucked underneath a box.

"That... is for bedtime," she murmured.

He was considering altering their deal by starting bedtime early once he was able to see just what she would be wearing.

"Let me get this straight...you want to hack into Regina's bank account so you can find out if she's buying coins for an online casino game?" Emma demanded of her parents. "Then you want to hack into her Facebook account and make her lose them all. Really, guys? That's the most immature thing you could do. It's just a game."

"At least we aren't trying to kill each other," David pointed out.

"And you think she won't be pissed once she finds out? This is the Evil Queen we're talking about here, the same one who put Mary Margaret under a sleeping curse and Henry into one by him eating an apple turnover meant for me. My suggestion is that you suck it up and just try to play better if you're that determined to beat her. This town has finally settled down now that the father from Neverhell is gone and I'd like to keep it that way," Emma said firmly.

"Hi Mom!" Henry greeted as he entered the loft. "What's going on?"

"Nothing. Your grandparents just needed a lecture on maturity. "Where's your dad? He was supposed to pick you up from school today. Don't tell me he forgot!"

"I didn't," Neal said when he walked in. "I was a little late because I stopped by the shop to talk to Papa about something but it was closed."

"Gold's shop was closed during the day? That's odd," Emma mused. "You try calling him?"

"He's not answering his phone and neither is Belle. Probably playing the slots."

Emma rolled her eyes. "Don't tell me they're involved in that damned Facebook slot machine insanity too!"

"Papa and Regina have had this competition going for weeks."

"Mom's winning though," Henry added.

"I should be grateful they're fighting each other on the internet instead of in person but what is so damned fascinating about a slot machine game that all the major players in Storybrooke are involved in it?"

"It's fun." was Henry's response.

"You too?" Emma groaned. "I give up!" she cried as she threw up her hands. "Come on Henry."

"Where are you going?" Mary Margaret asked her daughter.

"Somewhere I can find a little bit of sanity!" Emma grumbled as she walked out the door with her son in tow.

After they left Neal started laughing.

"What's so funny?" David inquired.

"I'm picturing the look on her face when she gets back to her apartment and finds out what Hook does all day while she's gone."

"You mean she doesn't know he…..?"

"No. He uses an account under a different name. That's what I was going to go to the shop to talk to Papa about. If he and Belle set up other Facebook accounts they can get more coins and spins to send to their main accounts. I tried to friend Papa a week ago but he ignored it because he doesn't know its me."

"This sounds like a better idea than hacking Regina's accounts." Mary Margaret spoke up.

"That option is still open."

"David, you're not serious, are you?"

"You were all for it earlier," he reminded her.

"Yes, well I...all right, that's it! She HAS to be cheating. Look!" Mary Margaret cried as she turned her laptop screen around so that her husband could see it. Their Facebook pages were filled by posts from Regina announcing that she won more coins.

In an apartment on the other side of town a coffee table was now sporting a new hole thanks to a large hook being jabbed into it in frustration.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit! Seven thousand dollar bet and all I get is a measly five hundred coins while that bloody Evil Queen has millions and no one else sharing today even that damned crocodile!" Hook complained. "Beginning to wish I'd never asked Neal how to use this blasted thing!"

He heard a car door close and quickly closed his browser as Emma and Henry walked in the door. When Emma saw the hole in the coffee table she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the former pirate.

"You want to tell me how that happened, Killian?"

"Ummm...it was an accident," Hook said nervously.


End file.
